Slow days at work..

How do you cope with these? A day where you haven't broken your head over something, or tried something out, or learned something new is a day wasted.

These days inevitably come by from time to time. It feels glorious at the time when you pass the whole day reading stuff mindlessly on the net, but it leaves a slight guilt at the end of the day. I work in a role where there are very few "routine" sort of tasks, or interaction with colleagues, to fill the hours once my work is finished. And no one expects you to sit in office if there isn't anything to do. Sometimes you can have a week where you barely put in 20 hrs of actual work. I need to think of mini-projects to do on my own during spare time at the job, so that I can at least learn something in the process, even if it doesn't materialize into anything useful for the company. Problem is the product is so complicated and there is so little that any single person knows, that it is hard to think of something sufficiently complex, and at the same time approachable enough to do on my own without depending on anyone.

How do you cope with these? A day where you haven't broken your head over something, or tried something out, or learned something new is a day wasted.

These days inevitably come by from time to time. It feels glorious at the time when you pass the whole day reading stuff mindlessly on the net, but it leaves a slight guilt at the end of the day. I work in a role where there are very few "routine" sort of tasks, or interaction with colleagues, to fill the hours once my work is finished. And no one expects you to sit in office if there isn't anything to do. Sometimes you can have a week where you barely put in 20 hrs of actual work. I need to think of mini-projects to do on my own during spare time at the job, so that I can at least learn something in the process, even if it doesn't materialize into anything useful for the company. Problem is the product is so complicated and there is so little that any single person knows, that it is hard to think of something sufficiently complex, and at the same time approachable enough to do on my own without depending on anyone.